[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/01/ridge.tom.cnn.art.jpg caption="Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge says he was not second-guessing his colleagues."]

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge became the very first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security after the attacks of 9/11. And in his new book, "Test of our Times: America Under Siege… And How We Can Be Safe Again," he opens up about the Bush White House.

The book is generating a lot of heat these days over implications that politics may have played a role in a proposal to raise the terror alert level before the 2004 presidential election.

Tom Ridge joined John Roberts on CNN’s “American Morning” Tuesday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.

John Roberts: The particular area in the book that's generating a lot of controversy, a lot of conversation, is the part where you talk about in the days after Bin Laden released that videotape, just before the election of 2004, I guess it was five days before, you wrote of that – and this was the discussion of whether or not to raise the terror alert level – you say, “Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by Rumsfeld. There was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None. I wondered, ‘Is this about security or politics?’” Walk us through your thought process when you wrote the book. Why did you even raise the issue of is this about politics or security?

Tom Ridge: Obviously, I'm musing in the book. I'm not speculating about my colleagues' motives, but this is a dramatic weekend. It is a weekend before a national election. This is the only time I really discuss a process that we used throughout my entire time as secretary when we decided…

Roberts: But why did you think it might be about politics?

Ridge: Well, at that time, as the individual who is responsible for the overseeing if we went up in the general threat level, I'm just saying in there, we were universally opposed to raising it in the department. And I'm kind of musing and scratching my head and I've got two people whose opinions I respect immensely, I’m not second guessing them, but I just say in the book, “Is it politics?” Perhaps the sentence should have been in a paragraph later – we wouldn’t be having a conversation. But I just want to make it very clear, I'm not second-guessing my colleagues, because I worked with them every single day.

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[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/08/21/townsend.ridge.art.jpg caption="Frances Townsend, CNN contributor and former homeland security adviser, disputes the allegation politics were involved in the terror alert level."]

During the 2004 presidential race, many on the left accused the Bush White House of trying to use the politics of fear to get re-elected. That same claim is now coming from a former Bush insider.

America's first secretary of homeland security, former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, says in his new book that he was pressured to raise the nation’s terror alert level ahead of the election.

Frances Townsend, former homeland security adviser for the Bush administration, says that's not what happened. Townsend is now a CNN national security contributor and she spoke with Kiran Chetry and John Roberts on CNN’s “American Morning” Friday.

Kiran Chetry: In his book Ridge says, “Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level, and was supported by Rumsfeld. There was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None. I wondered, ‘Is this about security or politics?’” Fran, you were in the meetings. What is your recollection of how that whole conversation went down?

Frances Townsend: Kiran, I actually chaired the meeting and called it. Tom Ridge knew very well that I agreed with him that I didn't believe there was a basis to raise the threat level, but I knew there were others in the Homeland Security Council that did believe that and we agreed we'd have the conversation. By the way, what Tom Ridge's book doesn't say is the most eloquent case for not raising the threat level was not made by Tom in fact, it was made by Secretary of State at the time, Colin Powell. And Bob Mueller, at great personal risk – remember his boss John Ashcroft was advocating to raise it – based on the facts of the intelligence, Bob Mueller himself made an eloquent case not to raise it.

• Related: Ridge: WH wanted terror alert hike before vote

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